John Day, OR had a freeze last night and when I went out to the jeep there was ice on the windshield!  My first stop was to be the Dewitt Museum in Prairie City but when I got there they are closed on Monday & Tuesdays.  Darn...

I stopped at the Prairie City post office, very small, and I heard from the back room, "I'll be there in a minute."  The woman came out and I got the "who are you" look but she asked what I needed.  I was looking for stamps for postcards and mentioned that I was traveling cross country from Oregon to Pennsylvania and she smiled and asked if I'd be going through Colorado, she always wanted to visit there.  She's from S. Dakota but had not traveled there.  I said I was also visiting the Dewitt Museum.  She said she had been there 6 years and had never visited it...sorta like living in New York City and never visiting the Statue of Liberty.  Seems like no one visits the places close by.  The masonic temple building looked interesting...I don't know what was up with those wheels though.

Just outside of Prairie City was a covered wagon sitting up on a hill marked as a view point.  It turns out it was set up to have information about the city, probably by the city council, but the view was wide open space!

US 26 was the road taken and you go for long stretches with mountains in the distance and lots of range land.  There is always fencing along the highway to keep cattle off the road but the ranches cover large areas.  I stopped on the side of the road at this sign post...

...lots more range land...and an interesting artifact sitting on a fence post just a few feet from the sign.

That's a teddy bear with a liquor bottle tied to its head...your guess is as good as mine!

I stopped at the Sagebrush Saloon in Vale OR for lunch...no Jason, its not as good as Pacific Blues in Bandon!  The next stop was the Warhawk Museum in Nampa ID.  

Its was a great stop with planes from WWI through the Vietnam War along with military memorabilia and artifacts from all those periods.  You could spend hours.  For my Philco Phorum phriends they even had some vintage radios although no Philcos. 

They also had my jeep's ancestor ....

Two other photos...

The drive today was again a mix of forests and range land with scenic mountains in the distance (when you weren't going over them).  When I would approach a more populated area (the cell phone service would resume) and I felt irritated that there was all this clutter in view...you know, people, cars, buildings...  I don't think I could live that isolated a life but I felt happy to be in it for a time.

The next leg will primarily by a stop at the Craters of the Moon National Park with the stop for the evening in Arco ID.  The planned route: https://goo.gl/maps/9i8coVsTYik